Safe Pass in Ireland: who needs it, how to get it, how long it lasts

What Safe Pass is

SOLAS describes Safe Pass as a mandatory one-day health and safety awareness programme. Its aim is to raise the standard of safety awareness in the construction industry, so that people on site can work without being a risk to themselves or to others affected by what they do.

People who successfully complete the programme receive a Safe Pass Registration Card.

Who needs a card

The legal basis is the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2013 (S.I. No. 291/2013). Under Regulation 4(2), the Safety Awareness Scheme in Schedule 4 applies to craft and general construction workers, to persons undertaking on-site security work, and to any other classes of persons the Minister prescribes.

SOLAS states that all construction workers in Ireland, including apprentices and trainees, are legally bound to hold a valid Safe Pass Registration Card.

Regulation 4(3) contains a narrow exception for certain people who install, commission, maintain, repair or remove mechanical, electrical and similar systems, who are normally domiciled and employed outside the State, subject to the further conditions set out in that Regulation. Regulation 25 requires such workers to receive site-specific safety induction instruction instead.

Who has to check the card

Under Regulation 25(1), every contractor, or other person under whose direct control people work on a construction site, must ensure that each worker covered by Regulation 4(2) is in possession of a valid safety awareness registration card.

Under Regulation 19, the project supervisor for the construction stage must coordinate arrangements to ensure that the people at work on the site each hold a valid card, and must monitor those arrangements.

How to get a Safe Pass card

You attend the one-day programme with a tutor approved by SOLAS. SOLAS publishes a register of courses and approved tutors, and advises you to check that your tutor is approved before you start.

The tutor charges a fee. According to SOLAS, the fee covers the training programme and the administration of the registration card. SOLAS also notes that the employer generally pays for the course.

The assessment is a multiple-choice test, not a written exam: the tutor reads each question twice and candidates tick one of the possible answers.

After the course the tutor uploads your results to the SOLAS database. SOLAS says the card is issued to the tutor about five working days after the upload, and that errors or queries about the information can delay it. If your card does not arrive, contact the tutor who delivered the course.

How long the card lasts and how to renew it

SOLAS issues Safe Pass Registration Cards for four years. After that, the card holder must update their safety awareness training, and a new card is issued on successful completion.

SOLAS describes two ways to renew: attend the full one-day tutor-led classroom programme again, or sit a 45-minute computer test of 50 questions in one of the designated testing centres, which is booked online.

Lost, stolen or damaged card

You can apply to SOLAS for a replacement using its online replacement card form, with a current passport-quality photograph. The card must still be in date to be replaced, and the replacement keeps the same expiry date. SOLAS says replacement cards are generally issued within two to three weeks of a complete application.

Cards from other schemes

Schedule 4 of the 2013 Regulations allows equivalent safety awareness schemes to be recognised. SOLAS states that the Construction Skills Register (CSR Northern Ireland) one-day health and safety course is the only course it recognises as equivalent to Safe Pass, and that you must hold a current CSR health and safety card to rely on it.